Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical bench assembly and more particularly to a cantilever optical bench for the optical bench assembly.
Brief Description of Related Art
Typically, a laser system employs an optical bench on which optical components, such as mirrors, polarizers, laser diodes, laser medium and so on are mounted. Exemplary laser system includes laser range finder (LRF), infrared (IR) marker and the like. Typically, the optical bench is hard mounted to bottom of a housing (that also serves as a chassis) for support. Generally, kinematic mounts are used to tie the optical bench to the housing in various degrees of freedom. During operation, the housing endures severe loads created due to different ambient conditions and loads, such as environmental conditions, temperature variations, vibrations, solar loadings, varying pressure loads, and so on. Such ambient conditions and loads may result in flexing the housing. The loads may then be transferred in part onto the optical bench. Due to the transferred loads, the optical bench may deform, bend and/or twist from its original shape, thereby detuning the alignment of the optical components.